Tom Giles With Hardy: No One Size Fits All For Golf Instruction

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BOSTON (CBS) – Golf instructor Tom Giles of Stow Acres Country Club joined Hardy to talk about the convolutedness of golf instructing, and how there’s no “one size fits all” method to teaching the sport.

You hear tips all the time like:

“Turn your hips.”

“Keep your hands low.”

“Keep your head still.”

“Swing in a barrel.”

“Keep your left arm straight.”

In terms of golf tips, what applies to one person may not apply to another — and it’s not like we’re professionals, so our golf game is constantly changing depending on which friend is in our foursome on a given day.

“What I’m terrified of is when it comes to taking lessons, or even getting fitted for clubs, is when someone says, ‘Okay Hardy, just take your normal 7-iron swing’, and I say, ‘Okay, what day is it?’ I don’t have a normal swing anymore. I’ve got my head filled with so much stuff I don’t even know where to begin,” said Hardy.

“The analogy I give people is they read golf magazines all the time, and the way I equate it, it’s like going to an advanced economics class in college for a semester and having a different teacher every day and none of them get to talk to each other. What kind of message are you going to get at the end of your semester?” asked Giles.

“You’re gonna be a basket case,” joked Hardy.

That’s why for teachers like Giles it’s important to first establish a baseline and “creating a profile” to improve your game.

“The process begins with creating a profile. So before you’re even hitting I’m gonna ask you what you do for work. Are you an engineer? How do you think? What are you thinking while you swing? We’re doing a diagnostic of your whole mental game as well as your physical game before we start to get an idea of what we need to do.

“Being careful of what we say, and how we say it, is very important. … We have to get as much information on you as possible with saying as little as possible,” concluded Giles.